Month: March 2026

Review the Kraken: Setting up the Season

Review the Kraken: Setting up the Season

For a small independent wrestling company that runs all its events in the same town in South Georgia, Kraken Pro Wrestling does some ambitious long-term storytelling. Frankly, it’s a shame this promotion doesn’t have more of a following than it does, especially at a time where building a narrative over time is becoming somewhat of a lost art, especially at the independent level.

We pick up here in June of 2025. Kraken just closed out its first “season” at the Kraken Classic, also the one-year anniversary show. Trever Aeon unseated Justin Kayse to become Kraken Pro Champion. The fact it’s a new season gets mentioned several times during this set of episodes and, like a good season premiere should, there’s a good bet of set-up for the twists and turns to come.

Here’s all the episodes included in this review:

Episode 53

Women’s action kicks things off as Jaz Jones takes on Alexandra Quinn. First thing that jumps out is the crowd size; it’s another big house, coming off the Kraken Classic, where it also was packed. The latter is making her Kraken debut and she’s an AR Fox trainee. Quinn is green but there’s something there; that ripcord spine buster of hers looks especially good. This match gets a little wonky down the stretch — again, green — but Jasmine wins clean. More heels should.

The major plot point from this episode is Donnie Harris, the lead broadcaster, stepping down as general manager. He’s replaced by Alex Chase, who used to be involved with something called Georgia Independent Professional Wrestling, which is an incredibly generic name and I say that as someone who used to help out with the Pro Wrestling Federation in East Tenessee. Of course, Justin Kayse and The Business have to come out and immediately confront the new guy in charge, just as they have done with the two previous GMs in Kraken. Kayse is sporting a neck brace after taking his first major bumps, and lumps, at Trever Aeon’s hands at the Kraken Classic (see the photographic evidence below).

Justin Kayse lies unconscious on the mat at the Kraken Classic,
Just running back this picture to make Justin Kayse mad … but look how peaceful he was sleeping at the Kraken Classic!

Kayse gets great heat here; he is a much better talker than he was when Kraken first began. Chase also is comfortable on the mic. But if you’ve been watching American televised wrestling at all in the past 30 years, you’ve seen this story before. Seriously, this has been a plot device for three decades now. Surely we can figure out something new.

Kayse is getting ready to position Dominic Stuckey to challenge Aeon for the title when Jay 2 Strong grabs the microphone and puts himself in the match. Apparently Kayse’s legal acumen is no match for the overarching social doctrine of dibs. With that apparently settled, The Business starts to leave, but wait! Stuckey has a match Right Now against…

Brother Azriel. These are two of my favorites on the roster and the match is as good as I expected. Azriel brings a rugged hoss energy that is really unique in this promotion. Stuckey, meanwhile, stands out not just with his technical ability or the moves he does; it’s those beats in between, like when he trash talks his opponent or the fans or says something to Kayse. After Dom and Kayse get crossed up and the attorney takes a spill, Azriel plants Stuckey with the Woodgrain which finishes the match — and should in every match where he hits it barring some serious shenanigans. This felt like a big win for Azriel to propel him to a greater role in Kraken. Works for me!

Episode 54

Kay Casiano, who serves as ring announcer and backstage interviewer, stays pretty busy on this set of episodes and that’s a good thing. She is very smooth and polished in the hosting type role. She gets some words with the new GM Chase, and Noir interrupts. They have history in Georgia Independe… let’s just call it GIPW.

It’s scramble time! Jak Myles puts the freshly minted Cash In Hand Title on the line, and $225 also is at stake! That’s almost half of a PS5 at current prices! The Cash In Hand Title is a fusion of CHIKARA’s Campeonato de Los Parejas contender rules and Money In The Bank. Defend three times, and the champion gets a title match with the Kraken Pro Champion he or she can “cash in” at any time. Like on screen authority figures, this cash-in gimmick has been around wrestling a long time, so I hope the Kraken brain trust has some unique twist cooked up for it.

Joey Hyder, Nathaniel Vamderbilt, and Dante Dripp are the opponents in the scramble. Vanderbilt leans into the dark side of the force, mocking Sweeper with the broom. Let’s see more of that; nobody wants to root for the spoiled rich kid. Dripp has a very punchable face, which makes him an ideal wrestler to put over others. Hyder wins the match, which I didn’t expect after Myles’ win in the big scramble at the Kraken Classic, which felt like a big deal.

Will Huckaby, who’s still the perpetual grump of Kraken, is the guest on the Diamond Den and shuts down the segment without answering a question. He’s probably tired of Duke complaining about referees’ counts being too fast or slow, or me complaining to him about Duke’s complaining, or a combination of the two.

All Star Special face Quick Drip in the episode headliner. The latter team is made up of Nick Quick and Travis Ray, who apparently join Dante Dripp to make this a three-man faction. They don’t explain this until the next taping, but I felt compelled to do so here for some reason. I like Travis a lot; he hits hard and has an explosive energy, but I think that gets lost with some of the silliness he does. The match is window dressing for a pretty strong angle involving Noir, who jump All Star Special. Huck gets put through a door that gets propped up in one corner. Why is a door under a wrestling ring, anyway? Duke points this out and for once I agree with him. The heels tie up Sam Hanson in the ropes and Mrs. Wright hits the ring with scissors and electric clippers. The crowd reacts right away before a single lock of Hanson’s hair is cut, and they give him a quick and dirty reverse mohawk. Donnie squalling, “she’s not a licensed cosmetologist!” was a line that was so ridiculous and also delivered with such conviction that I horse laughed in an empty room. This was the best thing Noir has done in Kraken, by a wide margin.

Episode 55

My favorite of these four episodes, and the entire story here centers on elevating talent in defeat.

It starts in the tag match, with Don Haylo and Jayy Wells teaming for the first time and taking on the H-Town Hittas. I’ve been a Don Haylo guy really since he first started showing up in Kraken, and I’ve always been a sucker for a “strong guy / fast guy” tag team dynamic. Jayy has leveled up gear-wise with the custom basketball jersey. I’ve written before about how the ascent of Wells in Kraken reminds me of the growth and development of young lions in New Japan Pro Wrestling and that progression continues here. Wells is delivering strikes to the Hittas with a delightful mix of intent and impact. The Hittas give much more here than they usually do but eventually assert themselves and win. Still, the team of Haylo and Wells was established here in defeat.

Kevin Kantrell faces ERC in the main event and Kantrell elevates his opponent here. ERC stands out in Kraken thanks to a sneaky opportunist style. He doesn’t try to look cool or do flashy moves; he takes shortcuts and the openings available to him. At one point, ERC suckers Kantrell with a straight punch, and Kantrell’s reeling sell into the ropes makes it seem like he got zapped with a stun gun. ERC kicks out of the Styles Clash (which the commentators weirdly dance around but never fully identify) before Kantrell finishes him with the crossface.

Come for the matches; stay for a rather entertaining segment filmed outside the building where Noir celebrate with Hanson’s newly shorn hair.

The Diamond Den on this episode with Alex Chase is a total mess. Alex spends half the time talking covering his mouth as he plays with his beard, and I say that as a habitual whisker fiddler. Alex is here to explain the Tides of War, the ongoing round robin tournament that is going to eventually crown the first Kraken tag champs (belts pictured above) and play out over the next eight months (!), which also seems an insane length for an independent promotion. Problem is, his verbal spiel contradicts the graphic that plays during the segment. No one comes away from this looking prepared or knowledgeable. Swing and a miss here but at least the new belts look snazzy.

Episode 56

This episode opens with a Strap Match between Rose Gold and Tsu Nami, which was scheduled for the Kraken Classic but had to get moved. The strap snaps in the first few seconds of the match and they have to improve everything that ensues. This is not a good match but I give them credit for trying to make it work on the fly. Rose wins by making Tsu Nami pass out to a choke just before the time limit expires. Duke thinks their issue is not settled. Of all the dastardly things he has said as the heel broadcaster, this is the most unforgivable yet.

After Donnie summons his best Don West to hawk some Kraken merch, we proceed directly without passing Go to the main event.

As for the main event, which headlines both this episode and the taping … There’s a lovely beat in the introductions when Kayse starts trying to go at Kay Casiano for referring to him as the “former” champion. It’s lost somewhat by bad audio that makes it sound as if Kay is announcing the participants while stuck at the bottom of a well. Donnie referring to “the Harris administration” made me laugh.

Trever and Jay have had multiple matches in Kraken by this point — some singles and some in tags. This is probably their best. I didn’t care for the commentators trying to say Jay has owned Trever in past matches, when Aeon beat Jay clean in their last meeting and in fact that’s how he earned the match with Stuckey at the Kraken Classic. Jay has established himself as one of the best wrestlers in Kraken. He’s so good at the little things. Case in point, he uses the tiniest bit of heel sleight of hand to take control, which leads to Kayse trying to slide his briefcase in the match and Referee Clark ejecting Kayse from ringside.

This is the first title defense for Trever and the first legitimate title match in Kraken history, and both wrestlers raise the stakes appropriately. Jay counters the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with a modified ushigaroshi. Later there’s a gnarly vertical suplex into the corner. Jay shows a ton of fight now that he’s on his own, which of course is the entire point of what’s building. Eventually, Clark gets bumped in the midst of an F5 that is lamely referred to as a a “finishing maneuver” on commentary. Jaz Jones shows up with Kayse’s briefcase and delivers one of the most gentle foreign object shots ever. I suppose she’s joined The Business now. Trever ultimately hits Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and wins it clean in center ring to a big reaction from the crowd.

I didn’t care for the shoehorning of Alex Chase into this match. He holds up the belt during introductions. He presents it to and straps it around Trever after the final bell. That’s all referee duty. We get it; he’s the new authority figure.

Want to catch up? Check out the full index of “Review the Kraken” content.

From the Crow’s Nest: 1978

From the Crow’s Nest: 1978

Our journey through the Portland Wrestling territory turns the calendar from 1977 to 1978.

Unfortunately, footage from this year is pretty sparse. We’ve got two partial episodes from the first quarter of the year, one interview with Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski, and … that’s it. Luckily, all of that footage is available for general consumption on YouTube.

2/18/78

Another partial episode, and once again, the dastardly duo of Rose and Wiskowski take center stage. Jesse Ventura is the hero du jour going against the duo. Most of these Saturday night episodes of TV serve as a vehicle to promote the upcoming Tuesday card happening in Portland, and that’s the case again here. Wins come by pin, submission, or both feet hitting the floor. The hook this time? Ventura is going to take on Rose, and has put up $5,000 against $1,000 for Rose to make the match happen. And Wiskowski is going to be the special referee. I’m not sure how this is fair for Ventura, but …

Our existing footage includes the main event of the episode, with Rose and Wiskowski defending their tag titles against Skip Young and Jerry Oates. It’s been about two and a half months since our last available episode, and there are notable physical changes for the two villains; Rose has leaned up and Wiskowski. Oates, meanwhile, comes out in a drabby sweatshirt that makes him look like a middle school gym teacher.

This marks the last footage of Young in Portland for the next while, and it’s his best yet. I maintain he would have been a great fit in modern wrestling. There’s a great exchange with Rose where they trade slams, then leap frogs, ending with a gorgeous dropkick but Young. Rose looks sharp in this match as well, and he’s back to taking those cartoonish slipping-on-a-banana-peel bumps on his punches.

One quality that stands out in Portland matches, and Rose matches in particular, is that he makes opponents pay for repeating the same move or tactic on him multiple times. There’s a fine instance of that here. Oates spends nearly the entire first fall working in or around a headlock, usually on Rose. On Oates’ third attempt to catch Rose in a headlock takeover, the Playboy blocks it and counters with a back suplex. A kneedrop straight to the face makes for a believable end to the fall, and puts the rulebreakers up 1-0.

In between falls, Frank Bonnema interviews Ventura from the crow’s nest. This is pretty standard fare but it feels like a treasured hysterical artifact, where we get a look at Ventura as a fan favorite in a territory.

In Portland, the wrestlers involved in the previous fall automatically start the next one, and that doesn’t play out well for Oates. Rose quickly seizes the upper hand and Oates spends the majority of the fall getting roughed up by the champs. There’s a fantastic moment in this fall, after Skip tags in, when he hits Rose with a jumping headbutt. Rose instinctively goes to keep over, but Young grabs him to prevent the collapse so he can exact more punishment. Oates ends up back in, avoids a flying knee drop from Wiskowski and then ensnares him in a spinning toe hold to get the submission. The crowd loves it, and Wiskowski sells the toehold like he’s having his lower body fed into a wood chipper. Verily, the Wrestling Gods are appeased …

Time for the third fall. Skip hits a swanky bit of offense when, while standing, he leaps and puts both knees in Rose’s head at once. There’s a move available to bring back for any current wrestlers reading this, who also have the hops to do it. You can feel the war of attrition in this fall. The challengers focus on Wiskowski’s knee, vulnerable after the submission in the second fall. The champions target Skip’s shoulder after he misses on a corner shoulder tackle and collides with the turnbuckles. The fans chant “We want Skip!” with gusto but the combined assault on Young’s arm is too much and referee Sandy Barr stops the match for injury, as Young becomes the latest arm injury casualty at the hands of Rose.

This was a very good match, and one of the better in-ring offerings yet in this journey through the Portland footage.

2/25/78

Next, we get another crow’s nest interview from the following week, with Rose and Wiskowski. The villains are reveling in recent results. Rose got the win over Ventura in that singles match and crows about the result. Later, Rose and Wiskowski come back to the broadcast position, gloating about Skip Young and his dislocated shoulder at their hands. These two are really the engine that propels the territory at this point. Other wrestlers cycle in and out to try and stop them, and ultimately, everyone has come up short to this point. At the same time, Rose and Wiskowski stumble and bumble and, in Rose’s case, bleed to make the protagonists look strong. The three-fall format for TV main events also helps, as the two rulebreakers can eat a pin or submit to drop an individual fall, but without losing the overall match, maintaining their status in the hierarchy while also providing hope that this time, their challengers definitely have what it takes to dethrone them.

3/4/78

Another week of Portland TV and another Tuesday card to hype, this time headlined by Rose and Wiskowski defending the tag titles against Jimmy Snuka and Ventura. There’s a tandem where I really would like to see some footage of that duo in action. Oh well. Ed Wiskowski is still gloating about he and Rose taking out Skip Young. This and the two interview segments from the week before are all fine but they are also rather similar. They’ve had better promos previously on other episodes.

It’s not the main event of this episode, but the other surviving footage puts Rose against Snuka. You had me at hello. This is very much a TV match, in that they’re saving much of the actual fight between them for the crowd at the non-televised event on Tuesday in Portland. The match itself is pretty forgettable, but if you’re a current wrestler, watching what Rose does is highly recommended because he puts on a master class in how to stall and work a crowd. Rose is interacting directly with many of the old timers in the front row, a lot of whom were season ticket holders at these Portland TV tapings. Rose eventually asks the ringside fans to be quiet, so naturally they go louder.

This crowd work lasts about three minutes before Roae finally engages Snuka in the ring, nearly gets caught in a flash in, and then bails out and goes back into a stall. Delicious.

Snuka is still on an ascent at this point and I find it hard to accurately describe how explosive his movements are unless you can watch the matches for yourself. He hits a gorgeous armdrag on Rose, transitions into a hold, and then lifts Rose up off the mat while still having him in the hold and slams him down to the mat. Once the initial gaga subsided, everything was 95% Snuka until Rose cut him off as he ascended to the top rope and slams him off the corner. Any control Rose has is short lived. He tries to come off the top as well and gets caught by Snuka, In the rally, Snuka delivers a jumping headbutt that Rose sells with a wild leaping bump that both makes no sense and is highly entertaining. It’s a peak example of how suspension of disbelief can be a vital component to full enjoyment of this weird, wacky medium.

One factor that makes Rose so effective as a headlining villain is that he has the skills to back up his boasts. He scouts and anticipates repeat attacks, and he has a maddening level of ring awareness. Exhibit A: Snuka delivers a pretty awkward-looking piledriver, but Rose gets a foot in the ropes on the pin attempt. Exhibit B: Snuka applies his full nelson, which submitted Rose back in December, and he immediately scrambles to the ropes, then does so again on a second attempt by Snuka on the hold, barely reaching the bottom rope with his foot.

Time expires in a draw result that let a bit telegraphed, and each man’s partner comes out for a staredown. Rose and Wiskowski against Snuka and Ventura feels like the fever dream of a wrestling game simulator. Frank Bonnema gleefully proclaims “we’re going behind the barn!” as they face off. Not sure what that means, but I like it.

Unfortunately, this is all the footage available in 1978. Rose and Wiskowski drop the tag titles to Ventura and Oates a few weeks later. Rose loses a stretcher match to Ventura and cycles in and out of Portland for the rest of the year. What time he does spend back in Portland later in 1978 is often under a hood, as either The Masked Marvel or The Avenger. Wiskowski remains more of a constant for Don Owen. He loses the territory’s singles title to Oates in May, wins it back, then loses it to Jonathan Boyd in August. Boyd remains the champ as we roll into 1979, when a certain Rowdy Scot is already well-established in the territory.

Check out the full index of entries in the From the Crow’s Nest series.

From the Crow’s Nest: December, 1977

From the Crow’s Nest: December, 1977

Back in the saddle with more Portland action. Apologies for the delay between installments. February included two snowstorms in back-to-back weeks here, then some sickness in the household, and the birth of our first grandchild. And yes, I’ve already been trying to educate him in the finer things such as professional wrestling.

We close the book on 1977 with this footage from December that also serves as a refresh of the roster.

I’ve included what is available on YouTube from the December, 1977 footage. However, if you want to make sure you’ve got access to everything I am watching as part of this project, I highly recommend supporting this Patreon account, which has a veritable treasure trove of old wrestling available.

December 3, 1977

Just a heads up that, depending on where you look online, footage from this episode is mis-listed as from November 26. Also, the video quality from this episode tends to range from “not great” to “piss poor.”

Frank Bonnema interviews returning fan favorite Johnny Eagles from England, dubbing Eagles as the man of a thousand moves. Eagles is one wrestler I have very little familiarity with, and while he came in and out of Portland with some regularity, there is not a lot of surviving footage of him in action — although he will be included on the next installment. Eagles brags on how strong the wrestling is in Portland, which is a recurring theme on commentary and in interviews with mainstays like Dutch Savage. A wrestling company that uses good wrestling as a cornerstone of its marketing approach … bananas!

The other existing footage from this episode catches the tail end of the main event: a two out of three falls match pitting Lonnie Mayne and Sam Oliver Bass (that’s Ron Bass, for those of you who haven’t been following along [and if not, there’s a handy dandy index!]) against Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski. The tag titles, which have been vacated since the last episode when Mayne agreed to team with Bass to defend them, are on the line and there are two referees: Savage inside the ring, and Sandy Barr at ringside.

This is also the final available Portland footage we have of Mayne, who dies the following August in a single-vehicle car accident. His manic, reckless-looking style is on display here, both in the ring and later on the mic. Wiskowski Irish whips Lonnie into a neutral corner, and Mayne takes a wild-looking bump to the floor, then comes up bloody. Back into the ring, and Wiskowski unloads on Mayne with a series of diving headbutts (I counted six of them). Rose and Wiskowski aren’t through and start swinging on everyone, including both referees. A melee ensues, during which Mayne opens up an absolute gusher of a cut on Rose. By the time the fight breaks up, Mayne and Bass (and Savage, for some reason) are standing tall while Rose looks like a murder victim.

Frank interviews both teams from his crow’s nest, and we get some of the best promos yet of this time period. Promoter Don Owen sets a rematch for the tag titles on Tuesday, and raises the stakes to make it losers leave town. Rose is absolutely covered in blood for this interview, and it really adds to the interview as Rose and Wiskowski rant and rave at this latest outrage perpetrated against them by management. Frank Bonnema then has an all-timer of a segue to the commercial between interviews, observing the blood that thoroughly coats the floor and then noting “You can clean up if you’re looking for a used car.”

Mayne and Bass are next, and Maybe spends the whole interview chewing on and swallowing broken glass. We’ve seen other wrestlers do this and apparently it’s an established part of Mayne’s schtick because it’s treated with a sense of impending doom, as if to say … “Lonnie’s not screwing around, he’s got the glass out again!”

Mayne and Bass go on to lose the non-televised rematch and cycle out of the territory.

There’s not much meat here as far as the wrestling action, but the blood and chaos and good interviews make for a highly enjoyable watch.

December 10, 1977

All we have from this episode is the second and third falls of the main event. Rose and Wiskowski, tag champs once more, take on Skip Young and Jimmy Snuka in a non-title match. Snuka is another guy who came into Portland several times in the 1970s and, as mentioned on a previous episode, now is going by his “Superfly” moniker. A review of results from 1977 show that Snuka has been in the territory for almost a month on this current run, but this is the first in-ring footage we have.

Snuka spends most of this on the apron while Skip does the bulk of the work and the selling for Rose and Wiskowski. When Snuka does tag in, the heels make him look like a million bucks. Wiskowski takes some big bumps from Snuka when he makes the tag in the second fall, which ends shortly thereafter to tie the match on a slick quick pin by Skip. In the third fall, another hot tag to Snuka sees him put away Rose in fairly short order with the “Fiji Island Full Nelson.”

Rose’s selling is consistently great but he sells beautifully in this match and the following interview. He projects an air of grievance that permeates his words, facial expressions, and physical reactions. It’s as if the world is against him in Portland wrestling, and Rose has to suffer for it almost weekly as a result. A couple of moments I particularly liked… A brief beat between falls where, on his way to the locker room, Snuka pops Rose as he leaves the ringside area and Rose sells it as if he’s just been seared in the face with a hot iron. Then after the match, an anguished Rose seeks out comfort from Wiskowski. Sporting a large bandage on his forehead that is likely the consequence of his artery tapper last week, Rose proclaims “They’d have had to kill me to make me give up” had the titles been on the line. The heels then engage in some casual racism — mostly from Wiskowski, sheesh — before a title match gets set for next week’s TV program. Sadly, footage of that one appears lost to the sands of time.

So 1977 is in the books, and there’s little debate that Buddy Rose is the MVP of the territory. If you are not familiar with Rose, I highly recommend seeking out some of the footage in this and prior installments to get a feel for his matches, his persona and the general atmosphere of Portland wrestling.

Up Next: We tackle what little footage that exists from 1978 in one single review.